Baseball glove and method of making heel therefor



June-6,1950 R. OLIVER ETAL 2,510,246

BASEBALL GLOVE AND METHOD OF MAKING HEEL THEREFOR Filed Oqt. 7, 1948 ATTORNEYS Patented June 6, 1950 BASEBALL- GLOVE AND" NIEIIH'OD'OE HEEL THEREFOR Roy Oliver and George Frye, .Giiicinnati; Oliio, assignors to Sport Productsiplnm, .Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Application October 7, 1948, Serial N 0. 53,346

3 Claims.

Our invention relates to improvements in baseball gloves which includes fielders gloves, basemens mitts and catchers mitts.

For many years it has been desired to provide a glove or mitt for baseball players in which a natural semispherical pocket will form in the palm of the glove when a ball is caught. One often sees a baseball player striking his clenched fist into the palm of his glove to form a sort of pocket, which, when a ball is caught, helps retain the ball. Padding is arranged in heavier layers at the heel part of the glove to facilitate this trend toward forming a semispherical pocket. But the padding often becomes displaced so that its objective can not be depended on. It is further conventional practice to fill a non-stretching tube with padding like a pillow.

When the glove is thrown out on the ground, when the players side is batting, the glove tends to flatten out so that, as far as we are advised, no glove or mitt has ever been entirely satisfactory from the point of view of its naturally forming a ball catching pocket.

It is the object of our invention to provide a glove construction which, when a ball is caught, immediately yields and forms a concavo semispherical pocket in which the ball tends to stick.

It is an object of our invention to form a heel for a glove or mitt which may be readily built within the glove or mitt and which, because of its contour, preforms the glove so that a caught ball immediately forms a pocket. It is further our object to provide a glove incorporating such a heel in which there is no tendency for the heel to become displaced and flattened out. This is because we provide a heel in which the cover is always under tension tending to keep the heel in its original shape.

The foregoing objects and other objects to which reference will be further made, we accomplish by that certain combination of parts of which we have shown a preferred construction.

In the drawings, the glove illustrated is for the right hand.

Figure l is a perspective view of our new type of heel.

Figure 2 is a sectional view of Figure 1 along the lines 2-2.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the palm portion of the glove from the inside showing a preferred manner of securing the heel in position.

In Figure 1 we have shown a knitted tubular outer cover member I. The tubular member I is preferably knitted on a knitting machine in a tubular formation having a diameter of from one to two inches depending on the particular type of glove in which it is to be incorporated. One end of the tube is stitched together as indicated at 2. Then the tube is placed on a stuffing machine and fibrous material is stuffed into the tube. As the fibrous material stretches the knitted tube, the shape becomes rounded. The open end of the knitted tube is then stitched as indicated at 3 and the heel is ready for incorporation into the glove or mitt.

In Figure 2 the knitted tube l is shown filled with stufling 4. While a tubular heel is indicated in some modifications, we may use a knitted member having four non-stretching seams so that the shape in section may be rectangular.

In Figure 3 we have shown the inside of the palm portion 5 of a baseball glove. In accordance with conventional practice a pad 6 of felt is stitched as indicated at 1, to the edges and top of the finger portions of the glove for the index, middle and third finger. The pad has an apron 8 which extends down part way over the palm.

The tubular heel member is then stitched as indicated at 9 to the tip of the thumb portion and as indicated at ID, to the end of the little finger portion forming a semi-circular portion II down around the heel of the glove.

We have not illustrated the back of the glove or the completed glove because, once the heel is in the position indicated in Figure 3, the addition of the lining and the back of the glove is proceeded with in accordance with conventional practice. The appearance of the glove is, once the heel is in position, the same as any baseball glove. Nothing shows on the outside which would be explanatory of the inner construction.

It will be observed that the tubular knit member remains under tension maintaining the stufling in the tube in its normal tubular shape and resisting the trend to flatten out which use of the glove normally brings about.

The knitted member may be cotton, rayon or nylon or mixtures of these yarns and the padding may be any desired fibrous material. While structurally this type of heel seems novel, the expense of manufacture is considerably reduced. Due to its construction the glove maintains its new feel without becoming lifeless and punky.

Having thus decribed our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a baseball glove a heel member having one end secured to the tip of the thumb and the other end to the little finger and composed of a tensile 3 tubular knitted cover member tightly filled with stuffing, the tension of said cover member tending to maintain the stufiing in its original tubular conformation.

2. In a baseball glove a. heel member having a tensile knitted outer cover and tightly filled with stuffing maintained in tubular shape by the tension of said knitted outer cover.

3. A heel member for a baseball glove comprising an outer cover, a tensile knitted cover member tightly filled with stufiing, which is maintained in its original tubular shape by the tension of said knitted, tensile outer cover.

ROY OLIVER. GEORGE FRYE,

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 899,522 Gamble .Sept. 29, 1908 1,003,031 Cline Sept. 12, 1911 V FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 245,897 Great Britain Jan. 21, 1926 

